Facebook 1 Billion Daily Active Users: A Milestone To Celebrate Or To Worry About ?

The day remains incomplete without using Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). It is imperative, to use the giant social media network while traveling, in between work, or before going to bed. After all, man is a social animal and loves to be connected. Just after one and half a decade of its existence the social media giant have traversed from the dorm room of Harvard in 2004 to achieve the biggest feat of recording 1 billion active users on 27 August 2015. That means 1 in 7 people on earth used Facebook in a single day to stay connected with their friends and family. Indeed, it turned out to be a big day for Facebook as the milestone apparently remain far from reach for any of its competitors.

The huge numbers hitting Facebook is a widely known fact today. And the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg expresses his feeling on the very day, “A more open and connected world is a better world,” and Facebook concentrates on building strong relationships.

We just passed an important milestone. For the first time ever, one billion people used Facebook in a single day.On…

As an open and connected world, as in the words of Zuckerberg, Facebook is a home of 1.49 billion internet users today but does it also remain a safe dwelling is a thing to ponder. In many ways, Facebook lives up to the expectations; On the status update of Zuckerberg announcing the new triumph, a user has pointed out the crucial use of the network during the natural calamities in Japan. Facebook was the only social network up and aided to connect with the family members in the country then.

With 1 billion users login on the Facebook daily, users can expect better suggestions, news, updates and suggestion owning to the fact that Facebook has greater access to users behavior online. Users can expect to see more intelligence-driven Facebook which will eventually help them make informed decisions on the platform and stay connected with like-minded people. This will make people more productive on Facebook by reaching more number of updates that are relevant to their need and interest of the hour.

Despite growing number, active usage of Facebook is declining; In 2014, the active use of Facebook declined to 42% from 48% in 2013. Interestingly, Facebook was found to be the only network that had recorded slump in active usage, rest all networks, including YouTube, Twitter, and Linkedin had recorded growth.

On the other hand, a big question that looms large is, does the size of the Facebook user base caters to the concentration of power and authority? Most of the new updates on the Facebook are accumulating more data about the users. With the new updates and new stories coming in every now and then, accessing the network through mobile app allows Facebook to store more information about the users. Nearly half of Facebook users are login to the network using the company’s official apps now. According to the Zuckerberg’s dream, though connectivity is crucial it is imperative to have a private space for every individual. Similar to Facebook’s new stories that are getting posted on the wall, and constantly urging users to give up more info about them is not limited to Facebook alone. Twitter also has started to stick new tweets of some people whom you may not follow.

Eventually, the race of owning users data has begun and none of the tech giant wants to be left behind in it, Facebook and Google, though, are leading from the front. All the social media networks are on the race of accumulating more and more users to get into the helm of the connecting world.

The big achievement comes with a big responsibility and that’s the area, apparently, Facebook is failing at. Having an access to enormous amount of users’ data is quite a challenging task and considering the fact that Facebook tops the list of platforms internet users are worried about their data on, users could be on a verge of exposing themselves to the whole world like never before. The recent incident of Ashley Medison is a clear example how hackers can peep into your personal life and ruin it till core by gaining illegitimate access to your data saved on such online networks.

Zuckerberg said that one in seven people used Facebook on the big day, but not every user is an enthusiastic user. With 1.49 billion monthly active users and 968 million daily users by June 2015, it has reached new heights with 1 billion people accessing the network in a day. However, keeping the track of the number of users is one of the metrics to track the growth of the Facebook, but it is not one of those important metrics as the numbers include all the users who have registered but are not active on the platform.

The Facebook’s global economic impact report states that about US$227 billion of the global economy has an impact from Facebook. Further, the social network had created 4.5 million jobs across the globe in 2014. On the other hand, the time spent by the 1 billion people on the social media site amounts to 60 billion hours over a year and if everyone hour of people is valued at 25 cents then the consumer surplus from Facebook exceeds the GDP statistics, claims some of the British newspapers expressing a mixed response for the development. However, the huge user base numbers are hazy to analyze the economy impact.